Psychiatrists from Moscow's Serbsky Center of Social and Judiciary Psychiatry told a September 9 press conference suicide rates remain alarming in some areas of Russia.

Boris Polozhy, who heads the department of ecological and social problems of mental health, said Russia has lost a million people to suicide in the last 20 years.

Zurab Kekelidze, the chief of psychiatry in Russia's Health Ministry, said among people under 18 years old the rate is some 16 suicides to 100,000 young people while the average world rate is some six to seven suicides per 100,000 minors.

Polozhy said research indicated the suicide rate in Russia was lowest among people living in the North Caucasus and the South and Central Federal Districts.

The rate was highest for people living in Siberia where the average rate was 30 suicides per 100,000 people, while in the Altai, Tuva, Buryatia, Chikhotka and Nenets regions there were some 60 suicides per 100,000 people.